Noticed, tucked right into a nook at Eurobike, was this slick aluminum Intense M1 Pinion DH prototype sporting a gearbox and their newest Sensible.Shift digital shifting. Now, Intense already has a not too long ago up to date M1 DH bike with a brand new high-pivot, 6-bar adjustable journey suspension design that’s been confirmed by their Manufacturing unit Racing staff on the DH World Cup circuit. So, what’s there to realize by recreating that bike with an electrical shift gearbox and a belt drive?
Apart from a 100,000€ reward from Gates… a number of efficiency advantages, too!
Would you ever consider automated shifting on a DH race bike?
Intense M1 DH electrical shift gearbox mountain bike prototype
We frequently hear in regards to the low upkeep advantages of gearboxes and belt drives. However there are fewer actual deep dives into the true racing advantages of such a setup, as effectively. Gates has definitely sparked some good dialogue with their provide of a 100k€ bonus purpse to the primary Elite DH World Cup win on a Gates belt-drive mountain bike. And Gamux Manufacturing unit Racing with their manufacturing Sego have gotten an excellent head begin.
However rely this high-pivot Intense M1 Pinion prototype gearbox DH bike as additional proof {that a} gearbox could possibly assist you go quicker in the kind of races the place a fraction of a second makes all of the distinction on the planet.
Higher weight distribution. Lowered unsprung mass. Decrease heart of gravity. No susceptible derailleur to bash towards the rocks.
What’s new, turning a World Cup DH bike right into a gearbox bike?
It’s no easy or low-cost venture to design, develop, and construct a World Cup DH racing prototype. However Intese is all-in.
It definitely helps that their newest World Cup DH race bike – the M1 – is already made from more-prototyping-friendly 6061-T6 aluminum. And it doesn’t harm that it not too long ago received a whole high-pivot, loafer pulley, 6-bar suspension replace that lends itself effectively to strapping a gearbox beneath.
To make that work, Intense actually solely wanted to reshape its chainstays and rebuild an all-new backside bracket cluster to deal with the Pinion. Successfully, it seems like all the suspension linkages and far of the shock tunnel carry over. And Intense retains the seatstays, toptube, headtube, and a lot of the downtube from the common M1, too.
Nonetheless, creating the brand new backside finish for Intense’s M1 Pinion DH gearbox prototype was no simple feat. So, Intense turned to the German fast prototyping specialists of Trumpf to 3D-print quite a few components in weldable alloy to finish this venture bike, and hold a Pinion gearbox off it.
Then, in fact, they needed to create a brand new Gates centerline-compatible loafer pulley for it, and rig the Gates tensioner pulley off the motor to maintain belt rigidity via 202-212mm of rear wheel journey.
Pinion C1.6i 6-speed digital Sensible.Shift gearbox
Curiously, most performance-focused gearbox bikers are normally making an attempt to get essentially the most gears and the largest gearing vary doable. However in DH racing the place particular 7-speed derailleur techniques already abound, Intense opted for the less complicated and lighter C1.6i 6-speed gearbox.
The magnesium casing C1.6i nonetheless offers the Intense M1 Pinion prototype gearbox DH bike a wide-enough 295% gearing vary. Plus, it’s nearly 15% lighter than the 12-speed model, and a claimed 1800g for the common gearbox. However that little i additionally signifies that that is an digital shift Sensible.Shift model.
This provides again some weight – with an inner battery and digital actuator – however replaces the generally sluggish really feel of the Pinion twist-shifter with a push-button electrical set off shifter. It additionally signifies that Pinion occasions your shift to the useless spot in your pedal rotation if you’re pedaling. So, you possibly can shift beneath load higher than ever (as a lot as a gearbox can ever actually be shifted beneath load).
The complete gearbox setup offers this Intense M1 Pinion DH prototype an extremely clear and easy rear finish, with no derailleur to fret about. And likewise you continue to get to decide on your required hub, like this fast-engaging Onyx.
Yet one more factor…
Pinion really debuted their digital Sensible.Shift shifting system a few summers in the past on bikes, the place it may plug into their large onboard batteries. And so they could possibly be configured for some automated shifting features too – alongside the identical traces because the Shimano eMTB-specifc AutoShift & FreeShift modes we’ve examined, however right here for the reason that gearbox can shift even if you end up not pedaling it may apply to common bikes, as effectively.
Pre.Choose would mechanically shift you into a super gear primarily based on pace as you coast, and Sensible.Choose would mechanically shift to a preset gear for ranging from a cease. Neither of these actually made it to any pedal-powered bike since you wanted a pace sensor to make it work.
However do you see that wire operating on the within of the non-driveside chainstay (above)? We don’t know why that may be there, except it was a pace sensor.
So it seems to us like Intense created their M1 DH race prototype, not with solely digital gearbox shifting, however automated Pinion Sensible.Shift gearbox shifting.
We will actually see that Pre.Choose perform coming in helpful for sure racetracks, the place a racer may program it to mechanically have the proper gear set to assault out of an excellent technical part, letting them focus on controlling the motion of the bike.
Intense says solely, “We’re true to our core values, continuously evolving, pushing boundaries, and growing our bikes.” Bringing automated gearbox shifting to the DH World Cup appears like pushing boundaries to us too…